California Ranked 2nd Most Sinful State, But Is It Fair?

CALIFORNIA — California was dubbed the second most sinful state in all of the nation this week, but does the Golden State really deserve the bad rap?

Wallethub released its annual rankings of the state of sin in the United States, and California came in second to Nevada, home to Sin City itself. The Wallethub analysts attempted to measure anger and jealousy, excess and vices, greed, lust and vanity based on crime rates and google searches.

The analysts ranked the top 10 most sinful states:

1. Nevada
2. California
3. Florida
4. Louisiana
5. Texas
6. Tennessee
7. Arizona
8. Pennsylvania
9. South Carolina
10. Georgia

According to the report, California has the third most mass shootings over the last two years, the most reports of elder abuse and the most people searching for strip clubs, pornography, affairs, and "plastic surgery, liposuction, breast augmentation, and other terms concerned with physical appearance."

Okay, maybe Californians are known for being lusty and vain — the two go hand-in-hand, don't they? But are you really more likely to encounter a mass shooting in California than just about any state in the gun-toting South? No.

Wallethub's data centers on raw numbers rather than per capita rates.

"California is the second-most sinful state in America, thanks largely to the prevalence of violence. The state has the third-most mass shootings and the most elder abuse complaints. It also has the third-highest rate of bullying on school property, and a very high number of aggravated assault arrests per capita. It’s clear that residents’ biggest sins include anger and hatred," the report concluded.

But Californians aren't really so angry and hateful as Wallethub might have you believe.

Being, by far, the most populous state in the nation, there is simply more of everything humans do taking place in the Golden State. But that doesn't mean Californians are more likely to commit elder abuse or mass shootings.

Over the last two years, California has had the third most shootings — shootings with four or more victims. However, you're more than four times as likely to encounter a mass shooting in Louisiana because the per capita gun violence is so much higher. It's higher in every southern state.

According to Time, "The largest, more densely populated states like California and Texas have the most mass shootings in almost any given year. But when accounting for the number of people who live in each state, however, these behemoths have nowhere near the highest rates in the country. Texas, in fact, falls right in the middle as the state with the 25th highest rate, with 1.05 shootings per 1,000,000 people. California is in 27th place."

Wallethub, however, also tracked our keystrokes for sins committed via Google.

"Golden State residents are turning to the Internet to fuel their vices, searching Google for terms relating to strip clubs, pornography, and affairs more than people in any other state," Wallethub found. "In keeping with its Hollywood lifestyle, California also leads the nation when it comes to vanity. The state tops the rest of the country in Google searches for plastic surgery, liposuction, breast augmentation, and other terms concerned with physical appearance."

Well, no one's perfect.